Looking to Game 4: Worries and Silver Linings

[Sportcamper]

Spurs going for 21 in a row & ESPN & Sports Center are covering the National Spelling Bee…Whats up with that?

[TDMVPDPOY]

Also the second unit was awful. Why the was Gary Neal playing so much? It's time to put Manu as full-time ball handler with the 2nd unit because Neal can't dribble the ball up for , it's like watching Beno out there. Soooo many lazy passes last night.

dont compared him to beno, beno at leasts has 2 rings being the victory cigar and played some form of defense....

[urunobili]

Start JAx at the 2 TBH

[Obstructed_View]

I think it's time for Pop to bust out his go-to move and start Ginobili. Putting Parker/Ginobili in the starting lineup forces Westbrook to guard Manu if they're going to put Sefolosha on Parker and Ginobili has the court vision to work effectively with Manu out there, especially if Diaw is at the PF spot.

I think it's time for Pop to realize that this team isn't where they are because of his great adjustments and go back to what was working.

[TDMVPDPOY]

wtf is pop limiting diaws and KL minutes....KL at least can play defense and reb even if his gettin burnede on the other end....

so far i dont think pop has gone with his strongest unit that can play some sort of respectful defense with a punch of scoring

[DBMethos]

Silver lining: People can go right back to ignoring the Spurs. Under the radar, baby!

[benefactor]

Classic Pop tank game.

No substantial changes needed. They play better and they win.

[chreph]

joo gotta be keeding me meng. where's the foul?

lol That had me going all night with the broadcast. TNT loves them some block highlights but they NEVER showed the replay for anything that may have been a foul/goaltending. They always replay blocks and 50-50 calls but decided not to do that tonight for some reason. ESPN was openly criticizing some of the calls in the BOS/MIA game the night before yet TNT can't even show a replay or at least acknowledge that the call was 50-50 with the lone exception being the one charge called on Harden? Not the reason we lost but still much tougher to swallow bull when they keep telling you it's steak.

And I don't think some of you saying that Bonner HAS to keep his minutes watched the game. When Bonner was in, his guy was standing at the paint line, therefore NO SPACING. Nada. Zilch. I saw Harden and even Fisher "playing D" on Bonner while parked near the lane because they know they can close out on him while he's pissing himself each time the ball comes his way (even though they can't block his shot even if they DID close out on him). We're playing 4-on-5 when he's out there and ANYTHING would be better. You think Blair's going to screw up the spacing (even though Bonner is screwing up the spacing, too)? PnR with Blair to bring his guy out to the top of the key. Not good enough? Then play KL or Jack at the 4 and make Ibaka beat you offensively. Anything > Nothing.

I'm not a Bonner hater... I understand his purpose but, much like this isn't the series for Perkins, this isn't the series for Matty B. OKC accepted that, why can't we?

[Leetonidas]

True, I don't see what the point of the change up last night, we got killed. The only decent quarter we had was the first when most of the rotation was still normal. Hopefully it's some sort of CIA tactic because Pop has proven over the last few months he's not as bat as some of us pegged him as

[Mugen]

Classic Pop tank game.

No substantial changes needed. They play better and they win.

Det bene with the goods.

No adjustments needed other than matching their intensity.

[Brazil]

To be frank, I successfully baited Brazil into a Frenchie trolljob in the NBA Forum's thread,

but over all, I think I've been quite clear that all of the big 3 sucked tonight, and I didn't even think OKC had much to do with it.

That's why I'm not buying the "thabo adjustment" storyline. btw, these are the same people that were talking about Perkins being "THE" adjustment going into this game, and yet Perkins is a huge reason Tim looks like 77 years old in the post.

Tim, Manu and TP have been awful this game no doubt

The goods for TP are at least he didn't force too many dumb shots and was quite effective scoring the ball. He also tried to get his team mates involved.

The bads, tonite his passing has been from bad to very bad with a big amount of laziness, wtf was jumping like a goat to try to lob Sefo
obviously 5 T/Os is bad

If there are 3 players I'm not concerned about on game 4, it is tim, manu and tp. They are going to be hungry and have a great outing game 4.

[Mugen]

The Tiago foul on Fisher was the worst call of the game, maybe the series.

But a close second was the sequence where Duncan is just getting manhandled by Collison on the post and no call. And on the VERY NEXT play, Kawhi gets called for a touch foul as Durant tries to post up.

We didn't lose bc of the officiating but that was pretty laughable

[KaiRMD1]

I'd put Bonner in and see if he can make a three. If he misses, take him out for the game and put in Blair. All Bonner is good for is one good three point shot. His defense has always been Steve Blake-ish

[bklynspursfan]

Any chance Pop decides to start Jackson or Manu you think? Jackson plays with that fire our 1st unit doesn't really have.

[MR-Clutch]

WTF happened to Duncans face up game?? Hes taking no jumpers anymore, which he has been successful at all year besides the beginning of the year. Are the Thunder not giving it to him, or has he just forgotten about it?

[racm]

I'd put Bonner in and see if he can make a three. If he misses, take him out for the game and put in Blair. All Bonner is good for is one good three point shot. His defense has always been Steve Blake-ish

Should have traded for Novak tbh

They're practically the same except Novak hits his threes better

[BlackSilver]

I thought it was pretty bad when watching it, but big picture, look at the box score. The spurs were in it every quarter, even the third and fourth (for some reason i thought those were blowouts) it was respectable and they won the first which was amazing considering they were down 8-0 and the energy in that building was amazing. It's that second quarter, they got dominated. That was the difference in why it was a blow out. Without that second quarter swing, i still think the thunder when the game with a spirt in the fourth, but that was why it was a blowout. The second good news I saw in the boxscore, was parker was 6 of 12 and had 16 points and 4 assists. He was not "totally" shut down like everyone said. If he played the entire fourth like usual, he would have had 24 points 8 assists and a decent game.
Anyone remember games 3 and 4 in detroit in 2005, game 4 vs. seattle in 2005, game 4 vs. the suns in 2005, game 3 vs. UT in 2007? After those losses, you would have thought the spurs could never drive in the lane and not turn it over ever again. And we won those series. OKC is a good team, they were bound to win game 3.

This Sir, is exactly what I was thinking last night. We've had much worse games before where you could see no hope at all, and then somehow we figure it out. I agree with a lot of what's been said. We forced the 4-downs and PnRs way too much. Get TD to do his re-post to the other side when they front him. Bring the PnR way out away from the 3 pt circle. Move Tony through a ton of baseline screens and wear Sef out.

[BlackSilver]

And agree with all those Blair doubters. Yeah he played with a lot of energy in garbage time. He also managed to foul a lot.

[BlairForceDejuan]

Splitter not being able to post up Fish.

Splitter GTFO.

Hi Blair.

[TampaDude]

Splitter not being able to post up Fish.

Splitter GTFO.

Hi Blair.

Splitter was getting whistled for nothing. Refs sucked last night...not the reason for the loss, but they did suck.

[Mugen]

You might as well roll out a red carpet to the hoop for Russ/Harden/Durant if you're going to be subbing in Blair for Splitter.

1 loss and SpurFan clamoring for wholesale changes

[Legacy]

Not sure if this was mentioned.

Major Silver Lining: Spurs are healthy going into game four.

Thank you!

[DesignatedT]

When the offense is really struggling, getting Diaw the ball is not a bad option. He can make things happen more often than not.

[Maddog]

I thought it was pretty bad when watching it, but big picture, look at the box score. The spurs were in it every quarter, even the third and fourth (for some reason i thought those were blowouts) it was respectable and they won the first which was amazing considering they were down 8-0 and the energy in that building was amazing. It's that second quarter, they got dominated. That was the difference in why it was a blow out. Without that second quarter swing, i still think the thunder when the game with a spirt in the fourth, but that was why it was a blowout. The second good news I saw in the boxscore, was parker was 6 of 12 and had 16 points and 4 assists. He was not "totally" shut down like everyone said. If he played the entire fourth like usual, he would have had 24 points 8 assists and a decent game.
Anyone remember games 3 and 4 in detroit in 2005, game 4 vs. seattle in 2005, game 4 vs. the suns in 2005, game 3 vs. UT in 2007? After those losses, you would have thought the spurs could never drive in the lane and not turn it over ever again. And we won those series. OKC is a good team, they were bound to win game 3.

Probably the most rational post today. I agree they didn't shut down Tony like every one says. 21 turnovers and poor D.
How many of those turnovers where in the second quarter?

In addition to the above examples- how about Miami? Lose game 3, get slammed in game 3, yet win 4-2? Yes, OKC is dramatically better than the pacers it just demonstrates that you can easily go overboard.

I still remember the Tpups winning game 2 in 99 and how Sanders post game he talked about the playoffs where all about adjustments and they had made adjustments and won. Promptly lost the next two.

[rmt]

Spurs are in trouble if Pop can't figure out a way to free up TP vs Thabo. I'm hoping that he saw that they weren't going to win game 3 early and didn't want to show his hand until game 4. What else could explain the inexplicable number of minutes that Bonner got? Bonner is not spacing the floor - his usual playoff shrivel deserves 0 minutes for the rest of the series. Why can't Pop go with just TD, Diaw and Splitter plus whatever minutes of small ball? Even Blair deserves a try (just to change things up) over that choker Bonner. 1-7 = disgusting - not to mention the open shots he passes up.

Don't hear all the commentators offering "free advice" to Pop as they did with Brooks. No practical advice other than play harder. I've been hopeful and optimistic as Spurs have made this great offensive run - always with the thought that "but defense wins championships" in the back of my mind. I mean 40 points less than the last game - that's akin to OKC's defense completely shutting down Spurs' offense. Hopefully, Pop's got a counter up his sleeve.